"Afternoon," says this one. "I'm Bella."

"Hi! I'm Raleigh! Sacramento enclave. Where are you from?" 

Oh god he sounded so stupid didn't he. 

"New Orleans, it's nice to meet you. I'm going creative writing, yourself?" Why is meeting people like this. She's going to have stupid dreams about asking groglers what track they're going into and telling her spellbook she's from New Orleans.

"Ummm, languages." He feels so self-conscious every time he says that, because probably every other kid in that track speaks, like, eight of them, and he's just here being his mediocre self and doing languages track because Father thought it was probably less dangerous than artificing, which would be his second choice.

"Have you, um, written your own spells before?" ....Wow good work, way to put her on the spot, what if she's offended now and thinks he's pushy or something. 

"A couple that came out okay, though a lot don't. What do you speak?"

Oh god why does she have to ask. "Uh, English - obviously," nervous giggle, "and French and Spanish and Latin. ...Well, I can't really have a conversation in Latin but I can read it fluently." She's going to silently judge him, isn't she. 

"That's the important part, really, spells in Latin aren't going to be very idiomatic. I have French and Spanish too but went with Mandarin for the next one and I'm still working on it, characters are hard and avoiding it is a very solid decision."

"Yeah. I considered it when I was eleven, but my father thought it was smarter to get the Romance languages down really solidly. And I might try to pick up, like, Italian or Catalan or something if I'm feeling up for it." 

Raleigh is mentally reminding himself over and over that probably no one else can TELL how much he feels like an imposter right now and he needs to grow up already and move on from it. 

"When I'm solid enough in Chinese I'm probably going to go for Old French next, I feel like you could probably do something interesting with multiple eras of a language."

"Makes sense! I almost went for Greek but learning a whole new alphabet was a bit intimidating. If you wanted to do Old French later, I might be up for doing a study group or something?" 

Aaaaaaaaah is that too entitled, she's going to think he's so full of himself for assuming that obviously she would think he's cool enough to do a study group with... 

"Sure, always good to have leads on study buddies."

Does that mean actually or is she just being polite, he can't teeeeeeeeeeell. 

Also Mother's imaginary voice is reminding him that he should get his gear. "I, uh, have you met anyone called Shannon? From Canada? She's, um, carrying in some of my things." 

And then he promptly flushes CRIMSON because wow he much sound like such a stuck-up rich kid right now. 

"I don't think I have but if you give me your room number and I meet a Canadian Shannon I can send her your way."

"Thanks! I'm in 61A. Uh, you?" That would be the polite followup in the normal world. Maybe it's too presumptuous here? Aaaaaah. 

"563A." She writes Raleigh, Sacramento, 61A on her arm next to other collected numbers and names.

"Wow, that's organized of you," Raleigh says, watching. This is an inane thing to say but hopefully she won't judge him too hard on the quality of his small talk. 

"Thanks. Normally I have, uh, paper, but my understanding is it's generally possible to get that in here."

"Yeah, I think so. ....Umm, you probably know this already but my father says you shouldn't use extra pages in spellbooks for scrap paper even if the void gives you something really useless, the school can get offended about it." 

"Yeah, I try to be kind to books. My pen is enchanted and should be good for a long while but I will want to make a supply run for notebooks or at least paper tonight if I can."

"That's a good idea!"

Not that Raleigh needs it. At almost exactly 50th percentile weight for his age, he comes in at 52kg, and thanks to some poor girl from Canada trading favours to come here at all, he got to bring in almost 40kg of extra weight. He's got an entire notebook and ink refills for his pens. 

"...Uh, if you want, I can come with and we can watch each other's backs? And I could ask around and see if anyone else wants to join us. Shannon, er, from Canada, she probably needs extra paper too." She must have barely any personal weight allowance, with how much of his stuff she's carrying. 

"Sure, I'd be happy to join you guys once Shannon turns up."

"Sounds good!" 

Is he smiling too much. He's probably smiling too much and being weird or creepy but what's he supposed to do now, carefully adjust his lips to be less smiley, that would only make this more awkward... 

"I'm going to meander in that general direction, if you find Shannon first give me a yell."

"Sure, I'll do that! It was nice to meet you." 

"Likewise, see you around!"